Over 240 Massachusetts Schools Invited to Apply to the Exemplary Schools Program

Malden - 242 Massachusetts public schools from 136 districts have been invited to participate in the State Exemplary Schools Program.

The Exemplary Schools Program is part of the state’s School and District Accountability System that works to identify both low performing schools to provide them with help to improve, and schools that exceed expectations to share the lessons they’ve learned with others. The Department of Education will designate up to 12 elementary and middle schools to serve as Exemplar sites. Exemplar schools will receive special recognition and each will be awarded a $10,000 grant to support the participation of their administrators and staff in information sharing and dissemination activities over the next year.

Of the 242 schools, 180 are elementary, 40 are middle and 22 are high schools. 210 schools were selected for exceeding their improvement expectations, according to the School Ratings released last month. An additional 32 schools that met their improvement expectations, and had an overall average scaled score above that of many schools with similar demographics, were invited to apply.

Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll said, "These schools have had success in improving students’ MCAS performance over the last two years. I want to congratulate the principals, staff and students in these schools for their hard work and encourage them to apply for Exemplary School status."

The Department of Education sent letters to the schools’ principals to inform them that they had qualified for the program. Each school was also sent a questionnaire to help identify the best practices to be shared with other schools.

In addition to announcing those schools that had been invited to apply to the Exemplary Schools Program, the list of the 12 middle schools that have been referred for panel review was also released. These are schools who were in the Critically Low or Very Low categories who Failed to Meet improvement expectations and actually declined in overall MCAS scaled scores.

Those schools are the Solomon Lewenberg and Woodrow Wilson schools in Boston, East Junior High School in Brockton, Robert F. Kennedy school in Cambridge, Williams North Middle school in Chelsea, Edmond P. Talbot Middle School in Fall River, Consentino Middle School in Haverhill, Magnet Middle School in Holyoke, Narmandin Jr. High School in New Bedford, Rebecca M. Johnson and Elias Brookings schools in Springfield and the Accelerated Learning Lab in Worcester.

For more information on the Exemplary Schools Program visit the Department of Education website at www.doe.mass.edu/sda/.